Sylvester Stallone, rock legends Kiss, and disco icon Gloria Gaynor are among the luminaries celebrated at this year's Kennedy Center Honors.
The annual event on Sunday marks a notable break from tradition, with Donald Trump hosting – the first time a president has taken the stage instead of observing from an Opera House box.
Since his return to office in January, Trump has frequently positioned the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, named after a Democratic predecessor, as a touchstone in his broader critique of what he has lambasted as "woke" anti-American culture.
Asked about his preparation upon arrival, Trump stated he "didn't really prepare very much." He elaborated: "I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate.
“But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself. Johnny Carson, he was himself."
Trump confirmed in August his agreement to host. At a State Department dinner for honorees on Saturday, he explained he was doing so "at the request of a certain television network," predicting the broadcast, set for 23 December on CBS and Paramount+, would achieve its best ratings ever.
This role places Trump in a line of hosts including journalist Walter Cronkite and comedian Stephen Colbert, a known Trump nemesis. Previously, presidents watched the show alongside honorees; Trump notably skipped the honours entirely during his first term.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of several Cabinet secretaries attending the ceremony, said he's looking forward to Trump's hosting job.
“Oh this president, he is so relaxed in front of these cameras, as you know, and so funny, I can’t wait for tonight,” Lutnick said as he arrived with his wife, who is on the Kennedy Center board.
Since 1978, the honors have recognized stars for their influence on American culture and the arts. Members of this year's class are pop-culture standouts, including Stallone for his Rocky and Rambo movies, Gaynor for her feminist anthem “I Will Survive” and Kiss for its flashy, cartoonish makeup and onstage displays of smoke and pyrotechnics.
Country music superstar George Strait and Tony Award-winning actor Michael Crawford are also being honored.
The ceremony was emotional for the members of Kiss. The band’s original lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, died in October after he was injured during a fall.
The band's co-founder Gene Simmons, speaking on the red carpet when he and the other honorees arrived for the ceremony, said the president had assured him there would be an empty chair among the members of Kiss in memory of Frehley.
Stallone said being honored at the ceremony was like being in the “eye of a hurricane.”
“This is an amazing event,” he said. “But you’re caught up in the middle of it. It’s hard to take it in until the next day. ..: but I’m incredibly humbled by it.”
Crawford also said it was “humbling, especially at the end of a career.”
Gaynor said it “feels like a dream” to be honored. "To be recognized in this way is the pinnacle," she said on the red carpet.
Mike Farris, an award-winning gospel singer who is performing for Gaynor, said she is a dear friend. “She truly did survive,” Farris said. "What an iconic song.”
Actor Neil McDonough said he’s presenting the award to Stallone, which he said was long over due for Stallone's writing and acting. “But that isn’t even the best part,” McDonough said. "The best part is that Sly is one of he greatest guys I’ve ever met.”
Previous honorees have come from a broad range of art forms, whether dance (Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham), theater (Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber), movies (Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks) or music (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell).
Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center
Trump upended decades of bipartisan support for the center by ousting its leadership and stacking the board of trustees with Republican supporters, who then elected him chair.
He has criticized the center’s programming and the building’s appearance — and has said, perhaps jokingly, that he would rename it as the “Trump Kennedy Center.”
He secured more than $250 million from Congress for renovations of the building.
Presidents of each political party have at times found themselves face-to-face with artists of opposing political views. Republican Ronald Reagan was there for honoree Arthur Miller, a playwright who championed liberal causes.
Democrat Bill Clinton, who had signed an assault weapons ban into law, marked the honors for Charlton Heston, an actor and gun rights advocate.
During Trump’s first term, multiple honorees were openly critical of the president.
In 2017, Trump’s first year in office, honors recipient and film producer Norman Lear threatened to boycott his own ceremony if Trump attended. Trump stayed away during that entire term.
Trump has said he was deeply involved in choosing the 2025 honorees and turned down some recommendations because they were “too woke."
While Stallone is one of Trump's Hollywood ”special ambassadors" and has likened Trump to George Washington, the political views of Sunday's other guests are less clear.
Honorees' views about Trump
Strait and Gaynor have said little about their politics, although Federal Election Commission records show that Gaynor has given money to Republican organizations in recent years.
Simmons spoke favorably of Trump when Trump ran for president in 2016. But in 2022, Simmons told Spin magazine that Trump was “out for himself” and criticized Trump for encouraging conspiracy theories and public expressions of racism.
Fellow Kiss member Paul Stanley denounced Trump's effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, and said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January, 2021, were “terrorists.” But after Trump won in 2024, Stanley urged unity.
“If your candidate lost, it’s time to learn from it, accept it and try to understand why,” Stanley wrote on X. "If your candidate won, it’s time to understand that those who don’t share your views also believe they are right and love this country as much as you do.”
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